A POLICE investigation has been launched after a man in his 20s was declared dead after being found in a Suffolk street.

POLICE have launched an investigation and urged the public for information after a man was found dead outside a shop in Sudbury.

Officers were called to the scene just after 4pm yesterday following reports that a man with blood on him was lying outside the rear entrance to the China Shop in Gainsborough Street, which backs onto Weavers Lane.

They discovered a man in his 20s, who they declared dead at the scene. The cause of death has not been established and police say they are treating it as an unexplained.

A Sudbury resident who did not want to be named said he saw the bloodied body from his office window.

He said: “I was just returning from the post office when I saw all the police cars on Gainsborough Street. It was hot in the office so I opened the window, looked out and saw the guy lying in what looked like a recovery position.

“He was wearing a white shirt and you could see he was covered in blood.”

A police cordon was put up outside the front and back entrances to the shop while forensic teams investigated the scene just feet away from the Thomas Gainsborough Museum.

Rosemary Woodward, who works at the museum said: “We heard the helicopter flying overhead but had no idea anything so dreadful was happening so close to us.”

A police spokesman said: “An initial inquiry is getting underway as to what happened and how the man came to be there and, as is standard procedure, the death is currently being treated as unexplained.”

Anyone who may have seen or heard anything in the area yesterday afternoon should call Suffolk Police on 01473 613500.